Victoria Tavera
Staff Writer
The Campus Activities Board hosted a Latinx Festival to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month Wednesday in the Campus Center Ballroom.
About 100 students and campus community members attended the event, which featured a variety of food including Porto’s Cuban meat pies and pastries.
Michael Johnson, multicultural chair of CAB coordinated the event, which also included activities such as making friendship bracelets and DIY “Worry Dolls” which originates from the Guatemalan culture.
According to the lore, people could tell these dolls their worries, then place them under their pillows at bedtime so that by morning the dolls would provide them with the wisdom to eliminate their worries.
“Latinx Heritage to me is a big tree trunk, and under it are all these roots (different cultures) that go in infinite directions that make up Latinx,” Johnson said.
Johnson has also worked for the Center for Multicultural Services for three years.
He added that even though we are all different, we can still live together and love each other.
Roy Soto, junior accounting major, said the event felt like a place where students could come together and find their home away from home.
“Latinx Heritage makes me feel a part of something,” Soto said. “It is like a family.”
Taylor Vasquez, sophomore education major added: “This event is everyone celebrating various backgrounds and coming together through different traditions.”
A mariachi band also played music in the background while students’ enjoyed the activities.
University President Devorah Lieberman also attended the celebration.
“I think it’s our responsibility as a university to celebrate all the different constituents,” Lieberman said.
“Whether you’re Jewish, Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim, Latino, or from the Middle East, we have to find places and spaces where everybody says ‘I appreciate you.’”
National Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.
Victoria Tavera can be reached at victoria.tavera@laverne.edu.
Victoria Tavera
